600 



THE STEMS OF CLIMBING PLANTS. 



By John Shirley, D Sc, and C. A. Lambert. 



(Plates Ix.-lxvi.). 



In botanical excursions with the Field Naturalists' Club or 

 Royal Society, it has been a constant source of interest that 

 climbing plants of the Orders Bignoniacese and Menispermacese 

 could be partly determined by studying the cut ends of their 

 stems. This determination extended only to the Order, and not 

 to the genus or species. In Bignoniacere, the determining factor 

 was the arrangement of the bast in four masses, or in multiples 

 of four, each mass usualh' presenting rectangular outlines in 

 transverse section. In Menispermacese, the rays of wood and 

 bast have usually a stellate arrangement, the vascular bundles 

 being separated by broad, multiseriate medullary rays, which, in 

 transverse sections of the stem, appear club-shaped from dilation 

 of the last-formed cells. 



To test whether similar peculiarities marked the structure of 

 climbing plants of other Orders, some tifty-three stems were 

 sectioned, and their slides photographed by my colleague, Mr. 

 C. A. Lambert. 



List oj' Species examined. 



AcANTHACEiE. — Thunhevgia yrandijiora Roxb., T. laurifolla 

 Lindl. 



Ampelide^. — Vifis hypoylauca F.v.M., V. opaca F.v.M., V. 

 sterculifolia F.v.M. 



APOCYNACEiE. — Beaiiinontia yratidifiora Wall., Alelodrims acu- 

 tijiorns F.v.M., yVachelos^jei'mum jasmitioidea Lindl. 



AsCLKPEDiACEiE. — Cr'i/])tostegia yra7idiflora R.Br. 



BiGNONiACKiE. — Adeitocalymma nitidnm Mart., Bic^iiottiaJJori- 

 bunda H.B.& K., B picta Lindl., B. Tweediana Lindl., H. venusta 

 Ker, Tecoma Hillii F.v.M., T . jasminoides Lindl. 



